Chronicle • Cory MorseJuan Marinez of Okemos poses with Penny Burillo for a picture taken by his wife during Burillo's retirement party at the Family Independence Agency in Oceana County. Burillo has worked for the state for 30 years.

Chronicle • Cory MorseMarta Posada, left, shares a hug with Burillo at the retirement party. Burillo is credited with organizing some of the U.S. Mexican Consulate office's first visits to West Michigan.

To thousands of people of Mexican descent in the U.S. and Mexico, she's affectionately known as "la Angel Gringa," which loosely translated means "the White Angel."

Penny Burillo, 60, of Hart earned that nickname because she's been at the forefront of the battle for migrant farm worker and immigrant rights for the past 30 years.

Burrillo's efforts were recognized at a retirement party in her honor Dec. 12. Burillo, a longtime Oceana County Family Independence Agency specialist, retired Friday.

Hundreds of Michigan political and religious leaders, migrant and immigration advocates, farmers, friends and community supporters paid homage to Burillo at the event at the Oceana County FIA building in Hart.

Tom Thornberg, managing attorney for Michigan's Farmworker Legal Services, said that when he began his career in 1994, he was told, "there's only one person you need to know if you want to serve farm workers -- Penny Burillo."

"I remember her visiting the migrant camps when I was 14. I thought it was funny that a 'gringa' knew Spanish. It blew me away."
-- Jose Barco, whose family are former migrant workers

"She's gone out of her way to assist people when they have problems," said Thornberg, whose office is in Bangor. "They seek her out. If they're stranded, they show up at her doorstep.

"She's an ambassador of goodwill. She's an angel to farm workers."

One of Burillo's primary duties with FIA was to help provide services to farm workers and Spanish-speaking residents.

Over the years, Burillo has used her job as a springboard to serve on various local and state boards and committees where she's tried to address problems facing farm workers, including housing and racial discrimination and helping them find better education and job opportunities.

In 2001, Burillo was among a small group of migrant advocates from the U.S. who were invited to meet with then-President Vicente Fox in Mexico City. Fox and the U.S. contingent met for several days to discuss immigration problems facing Mexican nationals who come to the U.S. to work and live.

Burillo championed a plan to create identification cards for Mexican nationals who need legal documentation to cash paychecks or open checking accounts while living and working in the U.S. The ID cards also help police identify them during emergencies.

The cards, which are distributed by the Mexican government, have been in use in Michigan, Florida and other states that have large migrant and Mexican populations for several years.

After returning from Mexico, Burillo helped organize some of the U.S. Mexican Consulate office's first visits to West Michigan so that immigrants living legally in Michigan could more conveniently renew green cards. Previously, everyone had to go to the consulate's Detroit headquarters to turn in paperwork.

Burillo has helped many people over the years.

"I remember her visiting the migrant camps when I was 14," said Jose Barco, whose family are former migrant workers. "I thought it was funny that a 'gringa' knew Spanish. It blew me away."

It also inspired Barco because he followed in Burillo's footsteps and now works as a migrant outreach worker for the Oceana County FIA.

Afrodicio Benitez of Honduras said he sought out Burillo 12 years ago because he was afraid he would eventually be caught living illegally in the U.S. and be deported.

"I had heard of her long before I met her," Benitez said. Burillo not only helped him get his green card, he's also been accepted as a student at Michigan State University next fall.

"She took me many times to Detroit to get my immigration documents so I wouldn't get deported," he said. "She's a good person, a nice person. She helps everybody without conditions."

Burillo, a native of Oceana County, said she wasn't always passionate about trying to help farm workers and immigrants.

"Unfortunately, migrant workers were often not seen as people -- but as commodities," said Burillo of her childhood perspective. "The language barrier was also a challenge."

That perspective began to change after Burillo moved to Newport Beach, Calif., when she was 20. She found employment at a restaurant owned by a Mexican family. By 1970, she had married the owners' nephew, even though she could barely speak Spanish, and he knew very little English.

Their marital bliss was short-lived.

"We divorced after we learned to communicate," quips Burillo, who by 1976 had returned to Oceana County, minus a husband.

But the kindness of the Mexican family that owned the California restaurant and the Mexicans she met there was not lost on Burillo.

"I came back with a new appreciation," Burillo said. "Many times, you can't repay the people who helped you, but you can try to return the favor by helping other people."

After she returned to Oceana County, Burillo worked by day as a teacher's aide for Hart Public Schools, and by night as a dental assistant/receptionist for the Shelby migrant clinic. In 1990, she was hired by the Department of Social Services, which has since been renamed FIA.

Daughter Catalina Burillo said her mother has always been a tireless advocate for migrant workers. As Catalina grew up, it wasn't uncommon to have migrant families show up at their doorstep when they had no food or place to live. Her mother always welcomed them into their home, Catalina said.

"That's just who she is," said Catalina, who now helps farm workers find jobs through her position as an agricultural employment specialist for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth in Shelby.

"She's always been a humanitarian," Catalina said. "You don't find many Penny's in the world."